We are going to build the LFS system by using an already installed Linux distribution such as Debian, SuSE, Slackware, Mandrake, RedHat, etc. There is no need to have any kind of bootdisk. We will use an existing Linux system as the base (since we need a compiler, linker, text editor, and other tools). If Linux was not installed yet, it is not possible to put this book to use right away. I suggest to first install a Linux distribution. It really doesn't matter which one is installed. It also doesn't need to be the latest version, though it shouldn't be too old. If it is about a year old or newer it should do just fine. It will save a lot of trouble if the normal system uses glibc-2.1 or newer. Libc5 isn't supported by this book, though it isn't impossible to use a libc5 system if there is no choice.